Read more about the different types of Greenhouse gases, where they come from, and how they effects the environment in our Greenhouse Gases FAQ.

If every U.S. household replaced its TVs, VCR/DVD player and phones with ENERGY STAR models, we would save 25 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions a year.

To save energy and money, install compact fluorescent lightbulbs in the most frequently used lights in your house: the kitchen ceiling lights, family room lamps and outdoor lights.

If every American household used energy-efficient lights in those places, we would save close to $8 billion each year in energy costs. Find CFL bulbs at Circuit City stores.

—U.S. Department of Energy

Practical Earth Day Projects and Tips

If every American home replaced just one light bulb with an ENERGY STAR qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.

Saving Energy by Recycling Aluminum

Recycling a single can will conserve as much energy as it takes to power a television for three hours or
to turn on a 100 watt light bulb for four hours. Recycling aluminum is very efficient and requires much less energy than recycling other materials.
95% less energy is used to create an Aluminum can from recycled material than is used when creating a can from raw material.
Aluminum is also the only recyclable material that pays for it’s own recycling process. An average Aluminum can contains around 50% recycled material.

Recycled Aluminum is Durable

Aluminum is very strong and can hold more pressure than a normal automobile tire and doesn’t degrade in quality when it’s recycled. Aluminum can be recycled from sources other than soda cans such as car parts, building materials, kitchen foil, pots and pans, and many other objects.

There are several characteristics that span most definitions of Green Building.

• A structure that provides a toxin free environment for it’s occupants.
• Prevent harmful impacts on the environment and even improve the surrounding environment in some cases.
• Enables and promotes resource conservation

Green Buildings will make our existence more sustainable by efficiently using water, electricity and materials while lightening it’s impression on the surrounding environment.

You can help minimize your environmental impact of using a cell phone by:

Keeping your phone longer.

Choose your cell phone service provider carefully. Pick a phone with features you need and a style you like so you will keep it longer.

Charging your battery correctly.

Increase the life span of your phone and battery by following the manufacturer’s directions for charging the battery.

Reusing or recycling your phone.

Find ways to reuse or recycle your phone andaccessories when you’re finished with them. Many companies recycle or reuse cellphones.

The EPA has constructed a PDF document to educate people about cell phone recycling.

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• Turn on the power management features. Virtually all computers today have the ability to switch into low-power modes automatically when they’re idle; very few computers have this capability enabled! Here’s how to do it on computers running Windows XP.

• Turn off your monitor and computer when you’re not using them

• Turn down the brightness on your monitor

• Make sure your next computer meets the efficiency standards of Climate Savers Computing (an efficient computer uses up to 50% less energy than a conventional one)

• To find the most efficient PCs available today, look for the words “EnergyStar 4.0 compliant.”

via: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/08/is-black-new-green.html

It can be used to reclaim valuable metals such as copper without releasing toxic fumes into the air the way current practices do.

Printed circuit boards (PCBs) are made of fibreglass and resin with electronic circuitry on top. The number of PCBs manufactured is growing by around 9% every year

Via NewScientist.com